


BLACK

by unknowableroom_archivist



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Drama, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-09-03
Updated: 2011-01-13
Packaged: 2019-01-19 21:34:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 1,875
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12418623
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unknowableroom_archivist/pseuds/unknowableroom_archivist
Summary: The last generation of a proud family line.  The stories have been told a thousand ways and imagined another million more.  The acronym drabbles takes a quick dip in this fertile pool of fanfiction, to suggest again what they might say for themselves amidst all the excuses and condemnations we provide for them.





	1. B loodline

**Author's Note:**

> Note from ChristyCorr, the archivist: this story was originally archived at [Unknowable Room](http://fanlore.org/wiki/Unknowable_Room), a Harry Potter archive active from 2005-2016. To preserve the archive, I began manually importing its works to the AO3 as an Open Doors-approved project after May 2017. I e-mailed all creators about the move and posted announcements, but may not have reached everyone. If you are (or know) this creator, please contact me using the e-mail address on [Unknowable Room collection profile](http://www.archiveofourown.org/collections/unknowableroom).

  


Andromeda Black was accused of cowardice for not fighting in the first war.But she believed that the opposite of war was not peace but creation.So instead of seeking the destruction of her twisted family tree, she bore fruit.

 

And what a magnificent shape-shifting daughter she produced with her Muggleborn husband, what a gorgeous flower bloomed from one twisted ebony branch of Black even as the gnarled roots were burning.What she made anew while Sirius was destroying everything from past family to present friends to the vast majority of his future.Hers was certainly a more Slytherin battle, but it was the surest way to win.You did not join the forces of darkness in their campaign against peace, you built what they sought to destroy and defended it.

 

Bella knew.She wanted to kill Dora more than Harry Potter, than Albus Dumbledore, than she had ever wanted to hurt her precious, traitorous Andy. More than she wanted to wipe Sirius off the map as her aunt had the tapestry.

 

That’s why Andromeda always found it so funny that everyone expected her to hate Remus Lupin marrying her daughter.In truth, she could think of no better step for the Black bloodline to take than to unite with a werewolf – unless it was Teddy’s choice.

 

This was a Slytherin’s revenge on her Slytherin family: a great-grandchild, one of only two to carry on the Black blood, quarter-Veela, quarter-Weasley, quarter-dormant werewolf, eighth-Muggle, eighth-Black.And they said Remus was a halfblood too.Just think.After everything – Narcissa _Malfoy_ , Bella’s madness, Regulus’s last minute repentance, Sirius’s incarceration, Ted’s death, Dora’s murder…she won.


	2. L eft behind

  


There was a boy who touched each of their cheeks – just for a moment.It was the lightest of strokes, and afterwards there was a smile.

 Andy’s came first.A boy saved her from a wild hippogriff in a class, and in her hurry to dispense of the Life Debt, she had gotten the Mudblood alone.And he had laughed at her fury and discombobulation, and he had touched face her so softly she could barely recoil, and he had smiled so gently.

 

Bella’s was the most public.A Dark man plucked her from the crowd, and in her determination to stand strong before him, she had caught his eye.And he had laughed at the challenge in her eyes, and he had run his cold, cold fingers along her cheekbone so lightly she barely felt his sharp nails before they struck, but even then she did not recoil, and he smiled just like a snake who had found its mate.

 

Narcissa’s was the most romantic.An heir to another great family asked her to dance, and in her glee she accompanied him afterwards out onto the balcony.And he had laughed at the eagerness and pride in her eyes to be his choice, and he had caught her face so gently she had known he truly cared for her, and when she did not recoil, he grinned and chuckled, promising to go to her father at once.

 

Sirius’s was the weirdest.After a prank gone wrong, his best friend touched the “neat scar” along his jawline.And he had laughed at Sirius’s inability to recall who had injured him, and he had poked the scar so playfully, and when Sirius did not recoil, he knew that he trusted this boy beyond his family members.And as the messy boy laughed that he thought he knew the culprit, Sirius could not.

 

Regulus’s was the Darkest.A raid on a house had gone right, and Regulus was leaving when a gurgle caught his attention.Bella laughed that they’d best make sure the witnesses were dead, at his surprise she had not finished them with a simple Avada Kedavra, such that he did not see the boy reach up until his fingers brush his face so weakly.

 

And he recoiled.

And it could not be called a laughed which bubbled out of him.

 

None of them ever forgot the feeling of that hand against their cheek, they could all feel it for the rest of their lives.

 

Regulus and Bella, by the ones they loved, were left behind – left with what those hands had traced across their cheeks.


	3. A vada Kedavra

Bella fired a curse at each of them before the end.With two, her curse hit home.Bellatrix Black killed both of her cousins.Bellatrix Black shot at the fleeing back of both of her sisters.She lashed out to remove the stain of weakness and foolishness in the male line of her family, and she vented her fury on the sisters who ran to places she could not follow.Either to Spinner’s End or Muggle London, the stays of her childhood had fled down paths she could not tread.

 

But it was not always that way.The only reason Bella had ever deigned to learn the Shield Charm was the thought that she might need to spring between her family and an enemy’s curse.She had never dreamed that she would be the attacker.

 

Bellatrix Black had never dreamed a lot of things.That’s the problem with dreaming of only one thing.And as the world she had known started to burn around her, when Andy and Sirius cracked the foundations and Reg combusted almost spontaneously, when Cissy was removed to her ice palace, Bellatrix found something surprising.There was a rush and – something more – there was a _power_ in the fall.It was exhilarating.It was intoxicating.It was the freest she had ever felt.Because she had no one left to protect, there was nothing to stop her from diving down into the depths that had always called to her.

 

By the time she shot to kill in the Department of Mysteries, by the time she struck to stun Narcissa, before she knocked Draco’s soul nearer and nearer the precipice she knew so well, before she learned the depth of her other cousin’s betrayal, before she was ever given the chance to eliminate Andromeda’s shame, Bellatrix had almost forgotten all of the childhood – all of the self – which would have made her so surprised that someday she would not only allow them to be attacked – but she would be the one who struck the killing blow against her family.But they had done so first.They had left her all alone in the dark.

 

Was it any wonder the Killing Curse came as easily as breathing?

 That was the problem with having only one dream, only one love.When it was removed, the only thing left to love was the vacuum and the fire.


	4. C razy runs in the family

Narcissa knew how easily it could happen.Hadn’t she watched it four times?Hadn’t she watched as each member of her original family slid into anger, obsession, madness?Hadn’t she seen how they all were punished? And she had stood, still as a statue, just like they all wanted her to be, silently beautiful as the world caved in around those she loved.

Now Bella wanted her to sit tight and let the Black family curse fall on Draco?Hadn’t she seen – didn’t she have eyes to see – that she was the only member of the lost generation to survive the ravages of insanity?There was one heir to the Black family tree – ONE!And she wanted to risk him – for _anything?_ Only a madwoman would dare.

Andy was the most obvious casualty, but she was the one Narcissa didn’t see coming.She was the first after all.But there had been signs – she had talked with Narcissa, talked of Mudblood rights…talked of Mudbloods she had met at Hogwarts…talked of speaking up among the family, trying to change their stance – then not talked of convincing the family anymore…let it turn into obsession until she fancied herself obsessed with one in particular, bound to marry him to prove her point to their parents – so obsessed with the idea of rights for these animals –

And who could have stopped Bella tilting the opposite way?After Andy went off the deep end?Narcissa had watched as they both dug in their heels and flung themselves to the wide winds to prove the other wrong.Bella fled to her Dark Lord and gave him everything because Andy had turned to her man forsaking all the world.So Bella did too, because older or not she followed Andy in everything, even into her madness over a man.

And the brothers did the same thing – snarled at each other, letting beliefs (mere differences of opinion!) crash against each other, propel them farther and farther away from everything they had been taught to value.Let blood prejudice become the only issue, the only discussion, the only definer of whose side they were on!As if _family_ counted for less than _politics_!Until they were gone.

And Narcissa watched it all in disbelief, helplessly holding the center as she had been taught.She stood still as the marble-breasted statue they had all wanted her to be and watched her lovely sisters and cousins descend into madness over _nothing._ Because what did it _matter_ if Mudbloods could attend Hogwarts – much good it did them!They were inferior stock, after all.Because who _cared_ if a few Muggles felt oppressed, they could go back to their old lives if they didn’t like it, couldn’t they?

And if they thought they were going to feed her _son_ to _that_ cause, then the Lost Generation of the Blacks truly were crazy.


	5. K Indness of kin

James demanded many times over the months after the Willow Incident what he had been thinking.Remus had many not-so-kind guesses.Sirius had no answer to give them.

What could he tell them?What he had been thinking was that Regulus wouldn’t listen to him anymore.What he had been thinking was that if Regulus kept this up the Willow was going to kill him.What he had been thinking was that Reg was about to be hit with that branch unless he picked up the rock and managed to hit the secret knot  _right now_.

What he had been thinking was that he couldn’t let Reg gethis brains knocked out because – in his rage at a brother who abandoned him – he went prying into his older brother’s secrets in the stupidest way possible.What he hadn’t been thinking was that Regulus would ever tell anyone else.What he hadn’t been thinking was that if he cursed the Willow to keep Regulus away his resourceful Slytherin little brother would simply tell Snape.

No, he couldn’t tell them that.He couldn’t admit that even to himself.Because that would be looking back, and Andromeda had warned him never to do that.And now he knew why.He had seen the wild look in Regulus’s eye as he turned in fury to look at the brother who ran out on him – then plunged wildly into the swinging branches once again.

Over the years, even Sirius seemed to forget the real version of the story. Because it would kill him to look back again – remember how much he loved his brother.  Remember how much his brother had been betrayed.How it had driven him right into the arms of a madman.


End file.
